Designtechnica Editorial: Thinking Inside of the Box

I’ve just nailed Eudora’s send button with a click, sending a ganged review of home-theater-in-a-box systems to my editor at a major men’s magazine. In the normal course of things I don’t go out of my way looking for excuses to review these things—let alone review a whole bunch of them at once. But the muse beckoned, strongly backed up by the state of my checking account, and soon my wisdom will hit newsstands on beautifully designed pages scented with men’s cologne.

Why wouldn’t a tech critic who specializes in home theater want to review HTiBs? Look at this way. Any literary critic worth his salt would want to review the latest from Neal Stephenson—whose three-volume Baroque Cycle I strongly recommend to anyone interested in the history of technology and some ripping yawns—as opposed to some first-time novel from a well-meaning English professor. A rap or rock critic will be more interested in the latest chart toppers than The Best of Cher. Movie buffs have better things to chatter about than the Olsen Twins. Oenophiles avoid jug wine. Food critics don’t spend much time at Burger King.